Agency chief seeks help on child abuse cases

AUSTIN — The state can’t hold on to child abuse investigators because they are overwhelmed and underpaid, the agency’s chief said Monday in a plea for help to the Legislature.

Although lawmakers have made two big attempts to shore up child protective efforts in the past eight years, staff losses, caseload growth and other demands have become serious again, said John Specia, who oversees the Department of Family and Protective Services.

“It’s real hard to run a railroad with 37 percent turnover,” he said, referring to last year’s attrition rate among rookie investigators in Child Protective Services. “I’ve basically got workers voting with their feet.”

His comments, made in an interview with The Dallas Morning News and others, are his latest push to get an additional $264 million for improvements throughout his department.

The Legislature is months away from approving agency budgets, and it’s too soon to tell how Specia’s request will fare. After a committee hearing last month, senators praised changes he’s already made since taking over in December to keep staffers onboard.

But the exodus is continuing, he said Monday.

Among all child abuse investigators, 34 percent quit last year. And turnover was about 25 percent among other types of CPS workers overseeing children in foster care and dealing with families to prevent state removal of children.

The personnel losses won’t stop unless the state helps reduce the number of cases, improves supervision and boosts pay, said Specia, a former San Antonio judge.

“My workers, those mostly 25- and 26-year-olds, are making life-and-death decisions,” he said. “If they care … and they’ve got just a completely unreasonable workload, you can’t pay them enough” to keep them, he said.

Specia said in some cases, investigators with only 18 months’ experience have been promoted to supervisor, in charge of six rookies.

Last year, The News reported that CPS pulled caseworkers from Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and elsewhere to work off spiking backlogs in Austin and Midland-Odessa.

To increase pay, improve supervision and reduce the number of cases, Specia has asked for $160 million in new money over the next two years.

That makes up about 60 percent of the $264 million in additional funds he’s seeking for the entire department. In addition to CPS, it has units that investigate elder abuse and regulate child care centers.

In 2005 and 2007, lawmakers responded to reports of horrific child deaths and exploitation of the elderly with infusions of extra money and new initiatives.

The House’s chief budget writer, Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said Monday that he’ll wait for a recommendation from his appropriations panel on social services before deciding whether to back Specia’s plan.

He noted that Specia’s agency is competing with others for limited dollars.

“The prison system said, ‘Please, give our front-line workers a raise.’ State employees want a raise. Judges want a raise,” he said. “We’re going to be looking at all of those.”

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which heard Specia’s budget request, said: “We are working on many fronts to improve morale and better support our caseworkers, and I will support appropriating additional funds with that goal in mind.”

Specia, who was a CPS lawyer in the 1970s and then a state district judge who mostly handled family relations for 25 years, said the biggest surprise he’s had in his first 60 days is what hits his inbox.

“I get an email every time a child dies … of possible abuse and neglect,” he said, noting Texas recorded 212 such cases last year. “So about every other day, I’m getting an email of a child fatality. That’s something I didn’t know about and didn’t expect.”

Follow Robert T. Garrett on Twitter at @RobertTGarrett.

The Department of Family and Protective Services is responsible for child and adult protective services and child care licensing. It has an annual budget of $1.4 billion and 11,000 employees, about 9,000 working for Child Protective Services.

The department chief, John Specia, is seeking about $264 million more from the Legislature to:

Fix staff retention problems.

Improve investigations of child abuse and unlicensed day care centers.

Strengthen preventative programs to keep children out of foster care.

In his first few months on the job, Specia has implemented new procedures, including:

Payment bonuses or caseload reductions for staff considering leaving

Signing the first contract to privatize some foster care services, part of a redesign lawmakers approved two years ago.

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